


A Debt Repaid

by icewhisper



Series: Leonard Snart Shorts [11]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-02 23:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13328349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: When Mick saved Len that day in juvie, it wasn't that simple. Len owed a life debt and, until he turned eighteen, it was his dad’s choice how to handle his debts. There was no way Lewis would have let Mick hang around his heists long enough to give Len time to save Mick in turn. A life for a life; through saving it or through marriage. A life saved or a life together.





	A Debt Repaid

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of my writing blog, [leonardsnartwrites](https://leonardsnartwrites.tumblr.com/). Normally, it would have been posted under the collections fic, [Leonard Snart Shorts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10837056), but it ended up longer than planned.
> 
> Anonymous prompt: Coldwave arranged marriage

“You’re leaving me with them?” Len sputtered. It was disrespectful, like he was just begging for his father to knock him on his ass.

Lewis almost did, a fist curled and an arm raised, but he lowered it. He didn’t look like he wanted to. He looked like lowering it just made him want to hit Len more.

Len very carefully did not skitter back.

“Their brat saved your worthless ass,” Lewis reminded him, glaring at him like he’d gone something wrong. Granted, he had. He’d mouthed off to a few Santini sons so spectacularly on his first day at juvie that they’d tried to kill him. So it was his own fault. Len was failing to see the point…

Oh.

“The life debt,” he realized. “That doesn’t mean you have to leave me with them!” He had a life in Central. He had _Lisa_. If he was left in Keystone, how the hell was he going to protect her?

This time, Lewis did hit him, a hard hit across his jaw that sent him careening into the wall behind him.

He knew. He knew the laws. Until he turned eighteen, it was his dad’s choice how to handle his debts. There was no way Lewis would have let Mick hang around his heists long enough to give Len time to save Mick in turn. A life for a life; through saving it or through marriage. A life saved or a life together.

He was _fourteen_.

He opened his mouth to argue, but Lewis caught him by the throat. “Lisa,” he croaked out. A question. A plea.

His father snorted and dropped him back to the floor. “Hope she’s smarter than you.”

 

 

Mick was standing on the front porch when his dad’s old Pontiac pulled up to the farm. Even from the passenger seat, he could see the apology Mick wanted to say. _I’m sorry for taking you from her. I didn’t mean for this to happen._

It wasn’t his fault. Most people didn’t follow the old laws anymore. They’d faded out of everyday use when blood magic and the fae fell out of favor, but Lewis had held on. The Snarts had always been more archaic than Len’s mom had been comfortable with, but that was how she’d ended up married to his dad in the first place. An old spell. A binding. Not even a divorce could have saved her.

Mick’s parents shooed him back as they met him and Lewis at the base of the stairs. They looked shell shocked, like they hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t wanted this. He respected them for it, seeing the horror on their faces at the idea of a man handing his son over like this. At the proof that Lewis still followed the way of the fae.

Lewis shoved him forward hard enough to make him stumble. Mick’s mother caught him with thin hands, holding onto him so tightly that he could feel the terrified tremble. His father was throwing him away, but he was forcing them into a magical contract he didn’t think they wanted any part in.

“The debt is paid,” Lewis said, final. Len could feel the magic crackle through the air.

Mick’s father paled, mouth hanging open, and fuck, he didn’t know what to do. He inched towards him, voice low as he whispered the proper words. “Paid with life,” the man repeated. “What was yours is ours.”

Lewis hummed, cast Len a last look of disdain, and left.

Mick rushed off the porch the second the car had disappeared, frantic eyes on Len. “What now?”

Len swallowed. “Now,” he said as he looked at Mick’s parents. At his in-laws. “You marry me off before midnight.”

 

 

There weren’t many choices. Mick was the oldest with a sister, Becca, a year behind him. Their siblings—the three boys and baby girl—were too young, bodies too weak to handle the kind of magic necessary to satisfy a blood debt.

Becca refused before he even came through the door. “I’m sorry,” she told him, genuine and terrified. “I can’t.”

“He brought in the fae, Becca,” her mother tried. “You’re the only option. If we anger them-”

“I’ll do it.”

They all turned to Mick. Him, with wide eyes. His sister with surprised gratitude. His parents with confusion.

“Mick, that’s not legal-”

“It’s magic,” Len said, cutting off Mrs. Rory’s argument. “Human law doesn’t matter. All they care is that I get soul-bound to someone and that the debt gets paid.”

“You’re both children,” Mick’s father said, angry.

“Becca’s thirteen,” Mick reminded him. “I’m older. And I’m the one that saved Lenny, anyway.” He looked at Len, surer than Len had ever seen him in the few months they’d known each other. “It should be me.”

Mick’s mother let out a noise like something in her hurt. Len understood. He felt the same thing. And like her, he knew Mick’s mind was made up. He was sentencing himself to _Len_ , to their souls being bound so completely that they’d follow each other through life and straight into death.

This wasn’t what Len had had in mind when he said they’d be partners on the outside.

It’s what was happening.

 

 

They completed the ceremony that night, dressed in white and bathed in the moonlight as Len talked them through the ritual. As they cut their hands and bled together.

Len felt when it happened, like his soul had been half torn from his body just to be replaced with something else. A warmth he hadn’t had before. A presence.

They fell into each other, knees in the mud and shaking down to their bones.

“Lenny,” Mick gasped into his neck. “I feel-”

“I know.”

He wanted a lighter. Thought that might have been Mick’s own want echoing through them both.

He laced his fingers with Mick, their palms still bleeding, and squeezed. Muttered a phrase in Latin as Mick repeated after him.

_I’m sorry_ , he wanted to say. _You deserve better than this._

“It is done,” he said instead and felt his end lock into place. “Where you go, I will go. And as you die, so shall I.”

Mick’s eyes met his, scared and serious in the same moment. “It is done,” he echoed and gasped as his own side clicked. “Where you go, I will go. And as you die, so shall I.”

A chorus of giggles came through the trees, loud enough that it covered the sounds of Mick’s mother’s sobs and his father’s sniffs.

Becca clamped her hands over her ears to try and block out the fae’s laughter.

It only grew louder.

The End


End file.
